Clint Eastwood, the Carmel-area's most famous resident since Bing Crosby (OK, these days Betty White belongs in the mix, too), is as nonchalant about his connection to the storied area as he is about his own remarkable career.

Once the mayor of Carmel, Eastwood fell in love with the community when he was a lad stationed at Fort Ord in the '50s. After carving out his early success with "Rawhide" and spending the obligatory years in the Southland, he has found a way to make it his home base ever since.

He shot his 1971 directorial debut, "Play Misty for Me," around Pebble Beach, Spindrift Drive, the Sardine Factory and other landmarks, and the late-night disc jockey stalker tale it recounted was based on the experiences of someone he knew - and his own.

The movie "was written by a friend of mine, Jo Heims," Eastwood recalled, sitting in the restaurant of the Mission Ranch Inn, now decked out for the holidays with poinsettias, garlands, lights and wreaths. "We knew each other when I was an unemployed actor and she was a legal secretary. Eventually, one day, she said, 'I've written a 60-page treatment.' When it came to the part of the DJ, I said, 'I've known that guy, and had an experience similar to that' - which a lot of people have had. It didn't go to homicide, but it was one of those situations where you have a stalker. People misinterpret signals ..."

All that seems far behind him now, as Eastwood recalls his favorite watering holes and hangouts in Monterey County. That's not hard to do, because he owns several of them, including Mission Ranch, the fabled Hog's Breath restaurant in Carmel and Tehama Ranch in Carmel Valley, where he resides.

For Eastwood, these days there's truly no place like home.

"I would say one of my favorite spots is this place," he says, gesturing to the field outside the window of the restaurant. "I bought it because it was a favorite spot. They were going to have some 60 to 80 units of condominiums come in, and I said, 'No, we can't do that. ... I've got to at least try to restore it. We changed some things, but it's basically the same as it was 60 to 70 years ago. It once had a polo field where the sheep are, and they had a swimming pool out where the brush is. They also had a sort of '50s modern building down by the tennis court, and I tore that down and put up something that was more like Mission Ranch to me."